TECPRO: A new safety system introduced by Philippe Gurdjian at the Paul Ricard circuit 10 years ago...

The President & CEO of the Paul Ricard HTTT Philippe Gurdjian, never stops to progress and improve safety on the race tracks all over the world.

After the creation of the new corners 'S' de la Verrerie' on the Paul Ricard HTTT, Philippe Gurdjian decided to install a brand new safety system to protect drivers and cars in case of impacts against the guard rails. This innovating system is to substitute the obsolete tyre barriers and their conveyer belts.

Philippe Gurdjian has worked over the last two years with TecPro International to find out the best concept for the new barrier system. This concept is made of rational moulding of flexible polyethylene blocks measuring 1.50 meters long and 1.20 m height with 0.60 m width and a weight of 110 kg. Strapped together, the F1 TecPro is filled with injected bendy foam of flexible density with a metallic sheet placed at the centre to reinforce the barrier.

The F1 TecPro has a maximum amount of energy absorption and can reduce greatly the 'G' force impact. Their installation is simple and their maintenance is truly easy and cost effective. Developed according to modern Formula One speeds, the TecPro barriers are truly efficient thanks to the system that can not get dismantled in case of crash, also they can not be punctured by any type of vehicle. In addition, official tests were carried out by the FIA and DEKRA.

One more time, Philippe Gurdjian was far ahead the first one to install and apply this brand new type of protection on the Paul Ricard HTTT, as he first started to set it up in the new 'Petit Beausset' corner as soon as January 2005. It was then first seen on a race track at the 2005 Monaco F1 Grand Prix in May of the same year.

In September 2005, when Philippe Gurdjian created the new corners in 'La Verrerie' (exact copy of 'Dunlop S' in Suzuka – Japan), he decided to install the F1 TecPro Barriers to replace the previously existing tyre barriers. On this new part of the track, the TecPro barrier is made of 210 blocs measuring 1.50m each set up some 1.20m from the guard rail to reinforce the absorption efficiency in case of impact. The absorption has been increased thanks to two additional red intermediate absorbent TecPro blocs which also give the Rescue Teams and marshals the opportunity to proceed to a quicker intervention from the service road towards the track.

"The Paul Ricard HTTT is the true reference of the new race tracks all over the world. As it was modernized, my main goal was to make out of this track the first track of the third millennium in terms of safety. We developed new concepts which are now copied on all the new tracks over the world. This is truly the best reward I could have expected. The TecPro concept is definitively innovating and a new step toward safety. This is the reason why the Paul Ricard HTTT was the first track to adopt it," explained Philippe Gurdjian, who is and will always be ahead of future…

In the last four years and after over 200,000 kilometres of Formula One testing on the Paul Ricard HTTT, there were only four impacts against the guard rails to be counted. It still stays a priority for Philippe Gurdjian to improve constantly the circuits and safety developments. As a matter of fact, the Paul Ricard HTTT has recently been chosen by the new FIA Institute to be the first centre for Motor Sport Safety.


Press release 
Paul Ricard HTTT
February 2006

Source: Onestopstrategy.com

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